Sharing Information and Knowledge to Develop Tamil School & Education in Malaysia

Monday, October 6, 2008

No New Tamil School in 9 th Malaysia Plan

Call on Hishammuddin to make public the number and particulars of new Chinese and Tamil primary schools to be built next year under the 2007 Budget – whether it is another zeroMedia Statementby Lim Kit Siang 28/9/2006

(Petaling Jaya Thursday) : Many woke up this morning feeling good that “the black clouds have disappeared” with a sense “everything is fine” when they read the front-page headline reports in the Chinese newspapers on the announcement by the Education Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein that two Chinese primary schools would be built under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP), seeming to put to rest the public outrage and disgust of the past week at the revelation by the Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar in Parliament that no new Chinese and Tamil primary would be built under the 9MP.

Why then is the DAP organizing a forum tonight about “Chinese education crisis”? Is there any Chinese education crisis?

I had announced last weekend my intention to move an unprecedented motion in Parliament when it reconvenes in November to resume its debate on the 2007 Budget – a censure motion of RM10 salary-cut not just for Education Minister but also the two Deputy Education Ministers, Noh Omar and Datuk Hon Choon Kim and the Parliamentary Secretary P. Komala Devi for their collective neglect and irresponsibility in failing to provide for the building of new Chinese and Tamil primary schools in the 2007 Budget and the Ninth Malaysia Plan to meet educational and increased enrolment needs.

Such a motion will be setting a “parliamentary record” of sorts, for up to now, a censure RM10 salary-cut had been directed at only one front-bencher but never against more than one at one time – and this motion will be directed at four front-benchers in the Education Ministry.

When I first heard the news last night that the Education Minister had announced that two Chinese primary schools would be built under the 9MP, I told myself that I would now have to reconsider whether to proceed with the unprecedented RM10 salary-cut motion against Hishammuddin, Noh Omar, Hon and Komala Devi when the Education Ministry’s RM22.2 billion estimates is debated on November 27.

Who should be thanked for Hishammuddin’s announcement? Is he Hishammuddin because we have a very enlightened and broadminded Education Minister, Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew for his recent comment on the marginalization of the Chinese in Malaysia which had created a furore among Barisan Nasional leaders or Noh Omar for his revelation in Parliament last Wednesday that no Chinese and Tamil primary schools would be built under the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

I believe the person who should be thanked for forcing this issue into the public domain should be the DAP MP for Ipoh Barat M. Kulasegaran who cornered Noh Omar to reveal the Education Ministry’s Ninth Malaysia Plan agenda and turned it into a public issue.

It is the unstated policy of the Education Ministry not to build new Chinese and Tamil primary schools under the five-year plans to meet the enrolment and educational needs of school children whose parents want them to be in these schools – the only exception is when the issue is used to fish for votes during general elections with the promises of a handful of new Chinese primary schools.

However, nobody has been able in the past to get the Barisan Nasional government to publicly admit such an unstated policy, although DAP MPs had ceaselessly and untiringly tried all these years.

During the winding-up of the Ninth Malaysia Plan in April for instance, DAP MP for Bukit Mertajam Chong Eng tried to get the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to give a commitment on the number of new Chinese and Tamil primary schools under the new five-year plan, but Abdullah evaded with the vague reply that new schools would be built according to need.

A breakthrough in Parliament was achieved last Wednesday when Kulasegaran hit the jackpot and forced the truth out of Noh Omar during the winding-up of the Education Ministry in the 2007 Budget policy debate.

I have just received the Hansard of the parliamentary debate on 20th April 2006 which recorded the parliamentary exchanges over Noh Omar’s admission of the Barisan Nasional’s “unstated policy”:

During this exchange, MCA, MCA Youth, Gerakan and MIC MPs were present but none of them uttered a single word! They just remained bystanders!

I don’t think anyone believe the excuse given by Hishammuddin that Noh Omar did not know that two new Chinese primary schools would be built under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, as Noh Omar was not contradicted for a week – whether by Hishammuddin, Hon Choon Kim who should have known or the MCA Ministers.

This is just not good enough. In the March/May meeting of Parliament, Hishammuddin had said that the Education Ministry had finalized the full list of education development projects under the Ninth Malaysia Plan. He had said in a written answer:

The full list of school development projects planned for the Ninth Malaysia Plan; and

The number and particulars of the new Chinese and Tamil primary schools to be built next year under the 2007 Budget, or whether it is another zero.

When Abdullah became Prime Minister, he had promised an open, accountable and transparent government. If Hishammuddin is committed to Abdullah’s pledge of open, accountable and transparent governance, he should have no problem in responding positively to my two calls.

When this forum was organized, the focus was actually on the Hishammuddin-Ong Tee Kiat kerfuffle over the expose of abuses of funds in school repairs as in the case of the SJKC Kung Yu where only RM3,000 worth of work had been done in a RM30,000 school repair project – or the pocketing of up to 90% of development allocations.

In the first place, what business had the Higher Education Minister, Datuk Mustapha to apologise for his deputy minister when Ong had consistently maintained that he had not done anything wrong. Mustapha should withdraw his apology to Hishammuddin on behalf of Ong, as it was made without Ong’s consent or subsequent endorsement.

It is most shocking that the Ministry of Internal Security had directed all Chinese media to stop publishing exposes of similar abuses of public funds and leakages in other Chinese primary schools, resulting in news report about similar abuses of public funds in the repairs for SRJKC Sin Bin in Klang, Selangor being blacked out in the Chinese press on Monday’s morning edition after it was given prominent treatment in the previous day’s evening edition.

Online Chinese media, Merdeka Review, had published an exclusive of the warning letter by the Internal Security Ministry to the Chinese media imposing a clampdown on reports about abuses of school repair funds.

The Chinese press had no choice but to toe the line to “co-operate” with the directive of Internal Security Ministry to “immediately” stop publishing such reports,

This is an unprecedented and intolerable interference by the Internal Security Ministry with press freedom, especially in the era of Abdullah premiership which had promised a government which is prepared to “hear the truth” from the people, the restoration of the lost freedom and fundamental rights of the previous Mahathir administration and an all-out war against corruption, abuses of public funds and all forms of malpractices.

The government should be encouraging the press to expose all other cases of hijacking of public funds as in the case of the SJKC Kudng Fu, but also all other development projects in view of the mammoth development allocations of RM220 billion under the Ninth Malaysia Plan to help fight corruption and abuses of public funds, and not to impose a blackout of such exposes by the press.

The Internal Security Ministry letter was signed by Che Din bin Yusoh on behalf of the Ministry Secretary-General Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof. Disciplinary action should be taken against Che Din or Abdul Aziz or both for straying into matters completely outside their purview and violating the Prime Minister’s public commitment for a free press and a clean and incorruptible government. I will pursue this matter when Parliament reconvenes.

A Parliamentary Roundtable will be held in Parliament next Wednesday, 11th October, 2006 on the subject of “New Chinese/Tamil primary schools under Ninth Malaysia Plan”. The Parliamentary Roundtable co-ordinator is Chong Eng MP for Bukit Mertajam. All political parties, educational bodies and NGOs concerned about education will be invited to the Parliamentary Roundtable.

We should make clear to the Barisan Nasional government that new Chinese and Tamil primary schools should be built according to need – but it must be the educational and increased enrolment needs for these schools and not the political or electioneering needs of the Barisan Nasional parties.